Ice chopper

ABSTRACT

An ice chopper has an elongated handle terminating in a non-linear chopping element with a lower edge. The chopping element could be two L-shaped wings forming an angle of 45-150 degrees or could be arcuate.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to provisional application Ser. No.61/345,660 filed on May 18, 2010 and incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

This application pertains to an ice chopper used manually on a sidewalkor other flat surfaces to break the ice formed thereon during or afterinclement weather.

2. Background of the Invention

During the winter when the weather gets cold, ice alone or incombination with frozen snow frequently forms on sidewalks, drivewaysand other flat surfaces on which people walk or drive. This ice orice/snow mixture forms a flat covering sheet that can become extremelyslippery. This ice sheet is dangerous to use, and frequently leads toinjuries to people slipping and falling down, or motor vehicles slippingand sliding across it. (Hereinafter it should be understood that theterm ‘ice’ refers to an ice and snow mixture and frozen snow as well).Frequently, to avoid this problem, salt, sand, ash, other material isspread on the surface of the ice to cause it to melt and/or to make itless slippery.

However, in many instances, these solutions are ineffective and the onlyway to solve this problem is to break up the ice using ice choppers. Atypical ice chopper consists of an elongated handle made of wood, metal,plastic, or other material, and terminating in a flat plate having asomewhat sharp edge on the bottom. The chopper is held upright with theflat plate being oriented substantially vertically and the chopper isthen brought up and down to pound the top surface of the ice with theedge of the plate thereby causing the ice to break.

A problem with the existing ice choppers is that they are veryinefficient, especially when the ice sheet is fairly thick, and it couldtake several hits to cause the ice sheet to break at any given location.A further problem is that the ice chopper plate is generally symmetricaland therefore when it does break the ice sheet, it causes the resultantice chips to fly in different arbitrary directions. There is therefore aneed for an improved ice chopper that operates more effectively, andthat causes ice chips to flow in a known direction so that their spreadcan be controlled and they can easily collected or swept away.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An ice chopper constructed in accordance with this invention includes anelongated handle terminating at its lower end with a non-planar choppingelement. The chopping element could be an arcuate plate, or it could beformed of two wings disposed at an angle of 45-150 degrees. The twowings could be rectangular and they could have the same dimensions, orone wing could be wider than the other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an isometric view of an ice chopper constructed inaccordance with this invention;

FIG. 1A a shows a bottom view of the ice chopper;

FIG. 1B shows a cross-sectional view of one of the wings of the chopperof FIG. 1;

FIG. 1C shows an embodiment of the wing with a serrated lower edge;

FIG. 1D shows a different embodiment with the bottom edge being formedwith different shaped cutous;

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the chopper with uneven wings;

FIG. 3 shows a chopper with two wings connected at 120 degrees;

FIG. 4 shows a bottom view of a chopper having a handle with each wingbeing connected or mounted on the handle, rather then to each other; and

FIG. 5 shows a chopper with a curved blade; and

FIG. 6 shows another chopper with a curved blade.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring first to FIGS. 1 and 1A an ice chopper 10 includes a straighthandle 12 made of wood, plastic, metal, etc., and preferably having acircular cross section of about ¾-1½″ in diameter so that it iscomfortable by a person while it is moved or reciprocated up and down.The handle terminates at the top with a grip 12A made rubber, plastic orother material that makes it easier to hold the chopper 10 and hit anice sheet.

A chopper element 14 is attached to the bottom of the handle 12 in anyconventional manner. For example, the chopper element 14 could be nailedand/or glued to the handle. Alternatively, the chopper element 14 can beformed with a sleeve (not shown) sized and shaped to accept the end ofthe handle 12 and form an interference fit therewith.

The chopper element 14 is preferably made of a metal such as steel sothat it is strong, relatively heavy so that it will last long. Ofcourse, the chopper element could also be made of a high impact plasticmaterial as well and if the handle is made of plastic, the chopper couldbe made as a single unitary device. However, for the sake of clarity, inthe present application, the chopper is illustrated as having separateelements for the sake of clarity.

The chopper element 14 may be painted or coated with some other weatherresistant material to protect it from the ice, water, salt, etc.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-3, the chopper element 14 consists oftwo wings 14A 14B of equal size. For example, in one embodiment, eachwing may be about 100-200 mm wide, 100-200 mm high and 1-4 mm thick. Ofcourse chopper elements having different dimensions may work as well.Moreover, while in the figures the wings have a generally rectangularshapes, it should be understood that they could have other shapes aswell as long as they have a straight cutting edge 16A, 16B. To makethese edges more effective they may be wedged shape to make themsharper, as shown in FIG. 1B. In an alternate embodiment, the bottomedge of the wings could be serrated as shown in FIG. 1C or formed with aplurality of cutouts 1D having different geometric shapes. Morespecifically, in FIG. 1D, the bottom of each wing has triangularcutouts, but other shaped cut-outs may be provided as well.

In the embodiment of FIGS. 1-1D the two wings 14A, 14B have the samesize. In an alternate embodiment, shown in FIG. 2 one of the wings,e.g., wing 114A is wider than the second wing 114B.

In the embodiments of FIGS. 1, 1A-1D, 2, the two wings are connected anddisposed at right angle with respect to each other to form an L-shape.In another embodiment, the two wings are still disposed at an angle withother but are not connected, but instead they are separated by a narrowgap indicated in FIG. 1 by dotted lines 40.

In another embodiment, the two wings form an angle that is either lessor more than 90 degrees. For example, the angle may range from 45degrees to 150 degrees. As an example, in FIG. 3 the wings 214A, 214Bare disposed at 120 degrees with respect to each other.

In yet other embodiments, the two wings are not directly attached toeach other directly, but instead, each wing 414A, 414B is attachedseparately to the handle 412, as shown in FIG. 4.

In another embodiment, the chopping element is formed of an arcuateplate 500 when viewed in a horizontal plane as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.For example, plate may have the cross-sectional shape of an arc ofcircle with the radius ranging from 8″ to 36″ or more.

All these embodiments have several advantages over conventional icechoppers. First, as the chopping element hits the ice sheet, the icesheet is broken up match faster and easier and requires less force.Second, the ice chips formed when the sheet is broken up tends to fly ina direction between the two wings and not behind the chopping element.Accordingly, it is much easier to control their direction of flight.Third, the resulting ice chopper can stand upright resting only on thechopping element. Prior art choppers cannot stand on their own and mustbe laid down to the ground or must be propped against a wall while notin use.

Obviously numerous modifications may be made to the invention withoutdeparting from its scope as defined in the appended claims.

1. An ice chopper comprising; a straight, elongated handle configured tobe held by a user and having a lower end; and a chopping elementattached to said lower end and being formed of a non-planar plateterminating at the bottom with a cutting edge.
 2. The ice chopper ofclaim 1 wherein said chopping element includes a first and a secondwing, each wing being planar and oriented generally vertically inparallel with said handle.
 3. The ice chopper of claim 2 wherein saidfirst and second wings are disposed are joined near said handle at anangle in the range of 45 to 150 degrees.
 4. The ice chopper of claim 3wherein said wings have a rectangular shape.
 5. The ice chopper of claim4 wherein said two wings have substantially equal dimensions.
 6. The icechopper of claim 4 wherein said first wing is wider than said secondwing.
 7. The ice chopper of claim 3 wherein said wings are disposed atan angle of 120 degrees.
 8. The ice chopper of claim 3 wherein saidwings are disposed at a right angle.
 9. An ice chopper comprising: astraight handle having a handle end; and a chopping element attached tosaid handle end and including a first and a second wing dispose at apredetermined angle with each other that is less then 180 degrees, saidwings having respective lower edges directed downwards so that when thechopping element is used to hit a sheet of ice, the lower edges causethe ice to shatter.
 10. The ice chopper of claim 9 wherein said wingsare disposed at an angle of 120 degrees.
 11. The ice chopper of claim 9wherein said wings are disposed at a right angle.
 12. The ice chopper ofclaim 9 wherein said wings have the same size.
 13. The ice chopper ofclaim 9 wherein one of said wings is wider than the other.
 14. The icechopper of claim 9 wherein said wings are rectangular.